How Small Businesses Can Combat High Gas Prices

While small businesses can't control gas prices, they can become more fuel conscious and efficient. This GardenCenter article details 8 ways to get started. If gas prices are impacting your business, read these tips and see how you can do the little things to reduce gas expenses.

David Wilson, Flickr.com

If you're an independent garden center owner who has a landscape division, operates a delivery service or uses trucks, golf carts and other vehicles, you've likely noticed that gas prices have increased during the past few months. This past week alone, the average cost of a gallon of gas increased by 7 cents, according to Sage North America. To combat the steep prices, they've provided suggestions to improve fuel efficiency and save money.

With the high prices of gas weighing heavily on small businesses these days, Connie Certusi, executive vice president and general manager of Sage North America’s Small Business Accounting, offers the following gas tips for small businesses:

1. Plan, plan, plan - With the help of websites such as Google Maps, plan out your deliveries and group them by area, date and time, when possible. Additionally, change your hours of delivery so that you aren’t sitting in rush-hour traffic, which wastes both time and gas. Using GPS can also help you avoid getting lost and wasting gas by circling the block. Lastly, consider asking customers who live nearby to pick up their orders rather than shipping it to them.

To continue reading about the top 8 tips, click here.

Follow Through for the Win

Learn how to maximize your bottom line by using these nine powerful tips found in this GardenCenter article. 

“Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” It’s uncertain who originated this pearl of business wisdom, but it’s widely recognized as an unarguable principle of business success. The truth is, until a sale is made, the business goes nowhere.

However, what it fails to point out is that focusing solely on sales at the expense of sound business management can be a path to financial mediocrity — or worse. How you manage the revenue generated by your garden center’s sales will determine how much of that money reaches your bottom line.

This article discusses nine powerful techniques that can help you gain maximum benefit from your sales right now:

Keep your money working for you
Skillful management of your revenue demands that you never allow any of your money to lie idle. Here’s a technique that will help you to avoid that costly error:

If you don’t already have one, open a money market account at your bank and ask to have it linked to your business checking account so that you can make telephone or online transfers.

Then, deposit all of your daily receipts into the money market account where they will immediately start drawing interest.

NEVER deposit receipts directly into your checking account. Keep a minimum balance in the checking account and transfer cash by phone or online only as needed to cover checks written. The banks have made this technique so easy to use that there is no longer any reasonable excuse for not using it.

While even money market interest is anemic at this time, interest rates are certain to climb and you’ll be set for an extra benefit when they do.

To read the full article, click here.

Job Outlook Improving For Construction Industry

This is an excerpt from a todaysfacilitymanager.com article.

Gradual improvement throughout 2012 and into 2013 offers construction job seekers some relief, according to a new report by CareerCast.com. Commercial construction has improved over the past year with indicators pointing to continued growth.

“Newly created jobs in the construction industry provide opportunities for candidates with a diverse range of qualifications and skill sets,” says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com. “A construction manager/site superintendent is one such career, and one of the most lucrative in the sector with a median annual salary of $82,790.”

The construction manager/site superintendent oversees the day-to-day operations on-site, which is also important to the overall profitability of a project. Particularly skilled candidates for this job need to make sure projects “avoid hiccups” to prevent further cuts into those profit margins.

In recent years, construction workers with specialized trade skills have been the most in-demand amid the industry’s tumultuous times, Department of Labor statistics show. BLS projections suggest most specialty trade careers will grow over the national average in the next seven to 10 years. That means 20% to 25% more opportunities for carpenters, electricians, and plumbers. Contributing to the growth of these fields are the options they offer. Some skilled workers are independent contractors with whom construction companies employ on an individual basis. Other companies choose to staff their own, full-time skilled trade workers.

The full article is available on the Today's Facility Manager website.